The present relates to a livestock tag locking system in accordance with the preamble of claim 1 hereinbelow. The invention also relates to a male component of a livestock tag locking system according to the preamble of claim 2 and a female component of a livestock tag locking system according to the preamble in claim 6.
Livestock tags of this kind have become widespread, especially in those countries which have a so-called industrial livestock production. In these countries such tags have all but completely replaced the previous conventional marking which was carried out by cutting a notch in the animal""s ear or cutting away a small piece thereof, thereby permitting identification of the animal""s owner. The earlier branding widely used in some countries is also well on the way to being replaced by livestock tags. The livestock tags are produced in a number of different colours and shapes, which facilitates identification even at a distance.
The livestock tags are not only capable of being used to identify the owner of the animal, but are also used increasingly to identify the actual individual animal, so that it is possible to keep a record of the course of the individual animal""s life, such as disease, vaccination etc. Recently, there has been an escalation of demands that it should be possible to trace meat from the livestock producer to the meat counter and back to the individual animal. This is particularly important should there be something wrong with the meat, such as an unduly high bacteria content, residual medicines or the discovery, after the animal has been slaughtered and the meat has found its way into the shops, that there is environmental pollution in the area where the animal has grazed.
Livestock tagging has thus become increasingly important vis-à-vis the quality of the meat. If a trace-back system of this kind is to work in a reliable manner such tags must be tamper-proof. With the previously known tags it has been possible to remove a tag from one animal in order then to fit this tag to another animal, which for some reason or another, e.g., disease or recent use of medicines, should not have been sent to slaughter. Having in mind the enormous sums that could be involved in any loss suffered by a producer if he is unable to obtain the expected price for the animal, it is obvious that for some it must be tempting to tamper with the livestock tagging.
In the EU and EEA area new tagging regulations have been introduced which require such livestock tags to be manipulation-proof. This means that once a tag has been fitted it must not be possible to remove it and fit it to another animal. Furthermore, it is a requirement that the force needed to separate the two tag components must be at least 30 kg, and when the connection between the two tag halves gives, they must be deformed or damaged, thereby rendering them unfit for reuse. This should be the case even after the tag has been worn by the animal for five to six years.
Examples of known livestock tags are taught in EP 56533, EP 105796, EP 123506, EP 177201, EP 212885, DK 163094, FR 2412258, FR 2533802, FR 2550915, FR 2569944, FR 2577380, FR 2578713 and FR 2635437.
Moreover, it has been presented as desirable to be able to recycle the material of the livestock tags after the animal has been slaughtered. Most of the livestock tags known to date involve the use of a metal spike to facilitate the piercing of the animal""s ear and/or a metal disc in the female component. This metal spike and the disc cause problems when the tag is to be destroyed or recycled. Before the plastic can be ground up the metal must be removed, making destruction or recycling highly unprofitable. It is therefore a further object of the invention to produce a livestock tag which does not have any metal parts, but where the whole tag consists of plastic, which preferably is also a plastic that can be used as animal feed, alone or mixed with another feed.
The aforementioned objects are achieved by means of a livestock tag locking system in accordance with the characterising clause of claim 1 hereinbelow, the male component of a livestock tag locking system according to the characterising clause of claim 2 and the female component of a livestock tag locking system according to the characterising clause of claim 6.
The dependent claims disclose advantageous embodiments of the invention.